EmpressOfDarkness's blog: "Short Stories"

He promised, she seethed. He promised and yet again he failed to deliver. She paced the room, her eyes flickered toward the closed door. Liar, she thought. He's such a liar! She stalked back to the fireplace and saw a picture of the two of them at the fair, taken only a few short months ago. His eyes were a warm blue, yet the gaze was cold and distant. It was as if he was staring straight through the camera, she noticed.
The sound of a disgruntled engine broke the silence of the living room, and she spun around waiting for the door to open. Anger flowed through her, making her blood feel warm and giving her skin a healthy glow. Wanting a final moment to herself, she stormed into the kitchen. Walking around the island, she hoped for something cool to drink.
She wasn't sure what she was going to do yet, but he had to learn that when he made a promise, it should be kept. Breaking them just... wasn't acceptable.
Hearing the front door slam, she reached for her drink then went back to the living room.
"Hi babe," Jeff called from the front entry. "I'm home."
"I'm home," she mocked quietly, walking across the hardwood floor.
"Tess, did you say something?"
"You forgot," Tess said, her hand resting on the doorway. She brought her other hand up to take a sip and realized she grabbed a knife from the butcher block instead of her glass.
"Forgot what?" Jeff asked, untying his boot. He looked up and saw the knife being tapped on his wife's lip. Her eyes glared down at him.
She stormed out of the room back into the kitchen. Slamming the knife down on the island, she looked at the clock on the wall above the stove. It was late, the candles had burned down to nubs and dinner was still warming in the oven. Although she felt no desire to eat it. Tess began putting the dishes away and clearing off the candles for the trash as Jeff walked in the room.
"Tess?"
"You do not want to talk to me right now Jeff. You just want to wait until I calm down."
"I don't know what..."
"You never know. That's just it, you never know, you never remember."
"Remember what?" Jeff looked at her completely confused.
"What's today, Jeff?" She swung around, her hair flying freely behind her. "What day of the freaking month is it?"
"The 15th."
"And what is the 15th of this month, Jeff. Think really goddamn hard." She glared at him. When he gave no reply she continued. "I asked you specifically to be here on time today." A tear escaped, and she wiped it for its bitter betrayal.
Jeff stood there silently, watching as she stormed around the kitchen replacing everything and tried to remember why she had asked him to be home. It had just been a couple of beers with the guys. Normally she wouldn't have gotten angry at him coming home later than usual. She was usually pretty good about things like that.
When she pulled the cake box from the fridge, a light switched on in his head. How could he have been so stupid, he berated himself. "Tess, I'm sorry."
"You're sorry." She glared at him as she opened the box slowly. "The one night I ask you to be home early, because it was important. You couldn't even remember! You promised and you lied!"
"It wasn't..."
"Of course it wasn't," she interrupted. "It never is."
He took a step toward her, and stopped when she lifted the knife up off the island again.
"This is what I think of your "it wasn't's" and your "I'm sorry's." She drove the knife viciously through the 'Happy." Lifting the blade back out of the cake, she flicked the tip at him. Icing and cake flew across the room and landed firmly on his shirt.
He stared at her in both disbelief and shock. As he went to wipe the cake off, another shot landed on his arm and chest. He tried to avoid the next impact but she was throwing recklessly now. There was cake and icing plastered against the wall, While she screamed obscenities, her hair flew wildly around her face as she turned, reaching for another slab. As she spun around with the cake cutter in her hand, Jeff reached her.
The timing couldn't have been more wrong. The blade slid easily to the hilt between fabric and skin. Jeff paused mid stride, stunned. Looking down, he saw the handle still in Tess' hand. Her eyes widened in shock and horror. A single drop of blood escaped the bottom of the wound, forming a crimson tear stain on his shirt.
Everything seemed to suddenly move in slow motion, his knees gave out beneath him and he crumbled to the floor as easily and silently as the cake had only seconds before. Staring at the remnants of the word anniversary on the cake, Tess began to scream. A moment later, Tess collapsed to the floor in a dead faint, the couple surrounded by icing, crumbs and peppermints.